Food Poisoning
by sdbubbles
Summary: Jenny tried to cook last night and it didn't go so well. Now Gibbs has to make her go home and convince her that she is actually sick.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Blame this one on the fact that Christeen cooked last night and she gave us both food poisoning. I will NEVER let her in my kitchen again, haha. NEVER. Anyway, this one will be two chapters long.**

**Sarah x**

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><p>Jenny wiped her mouth as she lifted her head from the bucket next to her desk. That was the eighth time in just over an hour. She hoped that this wouldn't continue all day; it was only eleven o'clock, for crying out loud.<p>

Just then, Gibbs walked into her office with a cup of coffee and placed it on her desk. He sniffed before enquiring, "What the hell is that smell, Jen?"

"No idea," she lied. Her pure white face looked even paler against her short red hair. She felt her stomach turning again and willed herself to refrain from throwing up until Gibbs left. "What do you need, Jethro?"

"Ziva uncovered a drug ring while she was undercover. We want to take them down," he stated. "As far as we know, there are three men and two women involved. All Navy personnel."

"Yeah, do what you need to do, Jeth-" she tried to say. She was cut off when she was forced to dive for her bucket yet again. Gibbs watched as she was sick and then wiped her mouth, facing him again. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. Why are you sick, exactly?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. He had always hated seeing Jenny ill, because she always played it down regardless of the severity of it. He moved slightly so he could see the container; it already had a fair amount of vomit in it.

"Doesn't matter. I'll get over it," Jenny assured her ex-lover. She was irritated with herself more than anything else. He gave her his trademark stare as a signal that he didn't believe her at all. "You'll just laugh at me," she glowered.

"I swear that I won't," Gibbs vowed. "Promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," she warned with a glare. She gave in and began her explanation. "Noemi's on vacation and I tried to cook." That was all that needed said. He knew that she couldn't cook. She had tried to once before, and the pair of then had ended up sick for the rest of that weekend.

The corners of Gibbs' mouth turned up a little at her revelation. Of course, she would have thought that ordering take-out would be giving in. "How did you manage to give yourself food poisoning this time?"

"Chicken wasn't cooked properly. It wasn't my fault," she added a little defensively. "Noemi is the only one who knows how that oven works. I did exactly what it said on the packet."

"Was it on full heat?" he asked, slightly amused. It was so like her to follow the instructions but not actually check what she was doing or what the oven was doing. "Stupid question. You don't even know, do you?"

"I think it was. Anyway, it doesn't matter how I got ill. All that matters is that I can still do my job, so you aren't getting rid of me that easily," Jenny joked.

"Wait. So you are going to walk around all day with a bucket just so you don't have to take a day off to recover?" he verified her intentions. Damn, she was stubborn. Too much like him, in a way. He too would not let food poisoning keep him away from his job where many others would.

"Got a problem with that?" she demanded casually, trying to hide the contentment that his concern gave her. It pleased her to know that he cared about her well-being.

"Well, yeah, Jen. You're gonna make it worse on yourself if you keep going like normal. Your body needs rest to fight it." She was going to make herself more ill and they both knew it. The problem was that Jenny was too persistent to let sickness beat her. That was the personality trait in her that could do her the most harm: her apparent inability to call it a day. "Give it up already. It's not gonna go away till it gets out of your system, and that won't be for ages yet."

"You want me to go home," Jenny said. It was not a question or an accusation. It was a statement of simple fact. She knew that he was right. It was not a bright idea to have her body fighting an ailment and trying to work round the clock at the same time. It was actually pretty idiotic, now that she thought about it. "You sound like Ducky. I'll call Stan and get him to drive me home."

"Nooo," Jethro drawled out. "I'll take you. Or do you want your driver to know that you can't cook to save your life?" he attached teasingly. She huffed once and packed her files away as she grabbed her coat. Gibbs just hoped that she didn't throw up in his car.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked that!<strong>

**Please review!**

**Sarah x**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Don't ask how this went in this direction...it just did. And I think I am in a little bit of shock, too, which means I might not be coherent for a couple of days. In a school so small, teachers and students are friends and when a teacher is hurt...it affects everyone.**

**Sarah x**

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><p>When they arrived at Jenny's house, she ran to the bathroom while Gibbs took her duvet downstairs to her sofa. Little did Jenny know it, but when Shannon or Kelly got sick he would take their bedding to the living room so they weren't isolated in their rooms. And he had a feeling that Jenny would not take kindly to going to bed before noon, particularly as he was intent on staying with her for a little while.<p>

Jenny stopped dead at the doorway of her living room. "What the hell, Jethro? Bedding is for _beds_," she said, her tone laced with exasperation. "Not couches."

"Would you rather we went to bed?" he suggested, raising his eyebrows. When Jenny threw her arms up in resignation, Gibbs added, "Exactly. Lie down."

She unwillingly obeyed with a slightly stroppy expression on her features. Gibbs lay on the sofa on the other side of the room and switched on the TV. He normally didn't bother with it, but he was with Jenny and he wanted to find a decent movie to distract her from being sick. Finding one, he tried to relax so that Jenny would.

They watched the movie while Jenny threw up a couple of times every half hour. It was becoming less frequent, at least. After about an hour, an exhausted Jenny Shepard was knocked out on her couch. Jethro actually didn't notice until she rolled over and almost fell off. He rushed over and pushed her back on. He took a moment to enjoy her peaceful face. It was never this tranquil; it was always stressed out, angry, sarcastic, worried…never care-free as it was now. He stepped over her and lay down behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Jenny smiled lightly in her sleep, aware of Gibbs' presence. She wriggled a little as she tried to roll over and succeeded when Gibbs loosened his grip on her waist. Her forehead rested on his chest and her subconscious mind brought back the memories she never wanted to lose. A ceilidh in the Scottish Highlands where they danced the night away in a castle that was isolated from any town for village for miles. She even managed, with Ducky's assistance, to convince Jethro to wear a kilt and. Long nights in Serbia with nothing to do but hold on tight to each other. That stuffy, airless attic in Marseilles where they lay together on a makeshift bed. All memories she wanted to keep, no matter what.

Gibbs smiled down at her head against his body. He pressed a kiss into her hair and embraced her like she was going to disappear. She suddenly woke up. "Why are you…" she tried to say. "How come I'm…"

Jethro shook his head in amusement while she tried to piece together a coherent sentence. "You fell asleep," he informed her. He'd forgotten how slow she could be in the minutes after she woke up.

"No, do you think?" she asked, her tone dripping with sarcasm. "That's the only way we would be this close and I'm not pointing a gun at you. I'm going to brush my teeth; my mouth tastes horrible," she told him.

She rushed to the bathroom to clean her mouth. As she was moving the toothbrush in her mouth, she was questioning her judgement. The rational part of her was telling her that she had no control over her actions while she was sleeping. She didn't want to believe that she still had such deep feelings for her ex-lover, yet she knew it was true. That scared her. Now, she would either act on it, or she wouldn't. Her choice, she realised while she spat the mouthwash into the sink.

When Jenny returned, she discovered that Gibbs had not shifted from her seat. She sighed and ordered, "Move, Jethro. Out of my seat."

He just grinned at her. It seemed that she'd slept the worst of the food poisoning off, at least.

She resigned herself to the fact that whichever couch she set herself down on, he would be there too. There really was no point in trying to evade him. She huffed a little and lay down next to him, fixing her concentration on the movie she wasn't really watching. His arm crept back around her waist without her notice. Perhaps because it felt so natural to her. Her attention was caught, however, when she felt his breath close to her face. She turned her head and their lips brushed unintentionally. "Jethro," she whispered. "What are you doing?"

"Hoping," he answered simply. He pressed his lips gently into Jenny's. She began trying to force him off of her, but then grasped that she did actually have feelings for him. Feelings that shouldn't be ignored for as long as they had been. She pulled his face closer and intensified the kiss. They kissed for a long time, taking in short raspy breaths where they could.

His hands wandered around her body until they found the hem of her sweater and pulled it over her head. Jenny forced Gibbs' shirt away from his body between kisses. She unbuckled his belt and shimmied his jeans down with her feet while, at the same time, he was stripping away her slacks. He allowed her to roll them over, forgetting they were on a sofa and not a bed. They landed on the floor together with a dull thud.

Jenny and Gibbs stared at each other for a second then started laughing. He picked her up with ease and wrapped her in her duvet. He carried both her and the bedding upstairs to her room and rolled her out onto the bed. "Feeling better?" he asked as he resumed his attack on her mouth.

"Hmmmm," Jenny moaned. "A bit," she allowed.

Gibbs chuckled at her reaction. "I love you," he murmured in her ear. "What about now?"

"Much better," she giggled. She assaulted his lips again and breathed, "I love you…"

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><p><strong>Hope you enjoyed!<strong>

**Please review!**

**Sarah x**


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